


Monday

by auntylala



Series: Season One Cannon [5]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst and Humor, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 11:42:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7436692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auntylala/pseuds/auntylala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Owen is no longer confused, but that doesn't mean Ianto has been looking forward to going to work on Monday.  But will Gwen figure it out? And what happens when a planes flies out of the clouds. Follows on from Echoes. In TW TV this moves around and though episode 10 Out of Time.</p><p>Posted on Fanfiction.net in 2013 and edited for readability.  As always I don't own the BBC or Torchwood or related fandoms but I do have a square foot of a distillery in Scotland that is mine.  Unbeta'd and mistakes are mine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monday

Jack heard an alarm stealing him from sleep and opened his eyes. 'Is the Hub on fire?'  
'No Jack, it's my alarm.'  
'Bloody hell Ianto, it's too early. This is why I live at the Hub.'  
'That would certainly save time commuting.'  
Jack found himself doing a very Ianto-like thing as he rolled his eyes. 'And I suppose I can't tempt you into turning the damn thing off, so we can get up at a more civilized hour?' He frowned as he waited for Ianto to say no because they had to be at work on time. The silence deafening. 'Uh Ianto. Every other time I’ve suggested we stay where we are now you just about read me the riot act.'  
'Yes I know.'  
'Why?'   
Ianto sighed softly in the darkness. 'It's Monday Sir.'  
'Yes.' 

Wondering why his lover was hiding behind the sir's this time. Jack rolled onto his side to face Ianto, he wasn't used to having to draw his lovers out, it wasn't his thing. So he did what he usually did instead, reaching out to brush Ianto's jaw with his fingertips. 'Would you care to elaborate?'   
'Not really.' Ianto moved closer to Jack so he could kiss him, not feeling like talking.  
'Are you trying to distract me.'  
'Yes Sir.' Reaching out to touch Jack, to explore his body in the early morning darkness. Touching him like this he could forget the world existed beyond the walls around them. 'Is it working?'  
'No.' Jack lied as Ianto's exploring fingers found his cock.  
Ianto brushed his lips over Jack's shoulder. 'Liar.' Kissing his way down his body until his lips met cock.   
Jack moaned softly, encouragingly. 'You don't play fair Ianto Jones.'  
Ianto grinned up at him as he blew lightly over the tip of Jack's cock.  
'Ianto.'  
'Do you want me to stop?'  
Jack shook his head, maybe he should just see where this was going to end after all. It wasn't like it would really matter if they were late, one of the perks of sleeping with the boss.  
Ianto relaxed into his exploration, his guide Jack's delighted moans and sighs. The alarm forgotten.

Lying back he gave himself up to Ianto, who was licking and sucking his way around his cock and balls. He jumped slightly when Ianto bit his thigh before lips moved towards his balls. Ianto took them gently into his mouth just to see if he could and was rewarded by a strangled 'Oh Ianto.'  
Jack was undone, Ianto's gentle exploration was as unexpected as it was delightful, the younger man had clearly been paying close attention. He wasn't sure when he had last been surprised by a lover this willing to try new things. Specifically trying things Jack had shown him. His hands finding Ianto's shoulders as he hung on, helpless, lost to Ianto's seduction. He tried to warn him when he was close to coming as the hand on his cock was replaced with lips.  
'Ianto.' Jack cautioned, not sure Ianto was ready for this. 'I'm,'  
Ianto looked up at Jack as daylight crept into the room around the corners of the drapes, stopping only for a moment. 'I know.' Taking Jack deeper into his throat as if swallowing him while his hands set a demanding pace.  
'Oh Ianto!' Jack held on as he felt his orgasm building, trusting Ianto was ready for him. His whole body poised on the edge of release. 

Apparently, the thought crossed Ianto's mind, it seem all the lolly pops he'd sucked on as a teenager had been in preparation for this one electrifying moment. Jack exploded in his mouth, reflex kicking in as he sucked and swallowed at the same time. When he was sure he had captured everything, he released Jack and moved up beside him.  
Jack tried to take slow, controlled breaths as he struggled to get his heart rate under control, fighting for words to express what had just happened. He reached for Ianto and pulled him into his arms. 'Are you okay?'  
Ianto smirked at Jack. 'You're struggling to breathe and you want to know if I'm okay.'  
Jack nodded. 'That was.'  
Ianto rested his head on Jack's chest, folded in his arms and smiled. He wasn't sure what he'd expected but salty and sweet, and hot wasn't it. He hadn't completely hated it, which was a pleasant surprise for his first proper blow job. And if Jack's reaction was anything to go by, he'd done okay.  
'We still have to go to work today Ianto.'  
'Can't I take a personal day?'  
Jack pulled Ianto up so he could kiss him. 'No and you can't hide here just to avoid Owen.'  
Ianto muttered darkly. 'I wouldn't have to if you'd let me shoot him.'  
'Ianto.'  
Ianto kissed Jack. 'I've got the time owing to me.'  
Jack moved his hands down Ianto's body and reached for his arse. 'We can be late but you are going to work.'  
Ianto sighed as hands stroked his arse and cock. 'I'm feeling very sexually harassed right now Sir.'  
Jack kissed his way towards Ianto's earlobe. 'Good...'

 

\----------------------

Gwen walked into the Hub frowning as she called across the room. 'Owen, Tosh, where's Ianto? He wasn't upstairs.'  
Tosh shook her head at Owen and mouthed the words. 'Don't you dare.' At him.  
Owen leaned closer to Tosh, his voice low. 'As if I want to remember.' He looked up at Gwen. 'How should I bloody know, I'm not his mother.'  
'I could murder a coffee. Where's Jack?'  
'Same place as the tea boy I should imagine.' Owen muttered.  
'That's not like Ianto to be late though is it, should we call him do you think?'  
'Oh I'm sure he's coming as fast as he can Gwen.'  
Tosh cringed as she threw a balled up piece of paper at Owen's head.  
'Oi Tosh, was that really necessary?'  
'I was thinking of asking you the same thing.' Tosh snapped at him, her voice quiet so Gwen couldn't hear her. 

Smiling she looked at Gwen. 'I'm sure they wont be far away. Besides, it's been quiet for a while now, practically no rift activity for days.'  
'If you've just jinxed us Tosh...'  
Tosh smiled at Owen. 'Jinxes Owen?'  
He shrugged. 'With all the stuff we see I'm not taking any chances. But Gwen's right, I could murder a coffee.'  
'Don't think of even touching the coffee machine.'  
'All right love, I wont play with either of their toys if you don't want me to.'  
Jack walked into the room and smiled at Owen. 'I'd appreciate it if you didn't.' He looked around at his team. 'No one has any paperwork to do? Ianto!'  
'Yes Sir?'  
'Is everyone up to date with their paperwork? Or do any of you need me to find you something to do? Plenty of artifacts to catalogue.' He looked around the room at his team.  
'I'll make the coffee Sir.' Ianto ignored Owen as he walked past him. He saw Gwen frowning out the corner of his eye and just keep his face blank. If he could get though the day without trying to shoot Owen the rest of the week would be fine.

\----------------------

Ianto lost himself in the familiar routine of making coffee. He ground the fresh beans and dripped the water though them. It was a sense of satisfaction as the smell of peculating coffee filled the spaces around him. He hesitated before frothing the milk, just in case Owen had been touching his coffee machine, even though he had said he wasn't touching his toys. Or had Owen meant he wasn't going to touch Jack's toys and inferred that as Jack's lover, that had included himself in that statement. He shook his head and focused on the milk before pouring coffee into the mugs on his tray. He didn't know what else Owen had said but the look on Tosh's face gave him an idea that he was glad he had missed it. 

He handed everyone their coffees and Gwen looked up at him.  
'Thank you Ianto, I was starting to get worried when you weren't here before I was, you always seem to be here.'  
'Running a little late, missed the alarm this morning.'  
'Jack said your car wouldn't start.'  
'That was after I slept in.' He gave her a quick smile, and mentally kicked himself, it would have been easier if he'd called in sick, but he had been in bed with his boss at the time so it wasn't the best excuse. Besides, Jack hadn't let him, no matter how persuasive he'd been. And although they had been stuck in his garage it hadn't had anything to do with not being able to start the car. It was possible they could have still made it in on time if they had wanted to.  
He handed Owen his coffee and Owen smiled at him, Ianto wasn't sure it was a friendly smile.   
'Oi tea boy, what was it then, slept in or couldn't get your motor running?' 

Ianto smiled politely as he contemplated tipping coffee over Owen. 'Nothing wrong with my motor Owen, hows yours? Or are you still driving a second hand car?'  
Owen glared at Ianto as Gwen piped up.  
'If you need your engine serviced Rhys knows a guy, but I didn't know your car was second hand Owen.'  
'It bloody isn't.'  
'Oh, right then.' Gwen looked at Ianto hopefully. 'I couldn't get a biscuit to go with my coffee could I?'  
'Does anyone else fancy a biscuit?'  
'Only if you don't have any chocolate ones.' Owen blanched. 'I don't think I could face a chocolate biscuit right now.'  
'I'm sure there are some gingernuts in the bottom of the tin just for you, Owen.'  
Jack walked over and took his coffee from Ianto's tray as he looked at Owen, nothing subtle in his tone. 'And I had you figured for a chocolate finger man myself.' He sipped his coffee as he looked at Ianto. 'I think they all know where the biscuit tin is.'  
'Will there be anything else Sir?'  
Jack shook his head. 'I'm sure you all have things you could be doing, paperwork to finish, artifacts to catalogue.' Looking at Owen he wondered if it might not have been easier to let Ianto just shoot him. He walked over to Tosh. 'How is the rift prediction programme coming along Toshiko?'

Ianto watched Jack talking with Tosh at her computer before he headed back to his desk in the tourist office. He wondered if Jack would be very mad if he poisoned Owen's coffee but he dismissed the idea. Tosh was fond of Owen for some reason, and sometimes he wondered if she wasn't his only friend at work. So poisoning Owen was out as it might upset her. He moved back to his desk and checked his emails, his bank wanted to sell him life insurance, nothing new there. And apparently he was the only living heir of some distant cousin in Nigeria, if he sent the lawyer the small fee of a thousand pounds his five million pound inheritance could be released to him. He was pretty sure that one was not legitimate as he hit delete. 

It was the next email that had him hesitating, wondering what his sister might be emailing him about. He clicked open and found a reminder that he was cooking Christmas dinner this year. Although how he was going to fit everyone around his kitchen table was an even bigger mystery than why reality television was so popular. It also reminded him that he wasn't sure what the etiquette was of buying gifts for your lover when you weren't even sure if you were in a proper relationship. He knew the conventional wisdom, if you have to ask the answer is probably no. He just didn't want to know, and what if he was wrong. What if it was just taking Jack longer to get there. And what would he get Jack if they were buying gifts. 

He grinned, this might just be the perfect opportunity to replace Jack's god awful collection of boxers with some that were less likely to make his eyes bleed. Chartreuse green, who thinks of these things. Besides which, they were very well paid so there was no excuse for appalling underwear. He was so lost in his thoughts he hadn't even noticed when Jack had moved in behind him, until he rested a hand on his back.

'Well I thought that went well.'  
Ianto rolled his eyes as he looked at Jack. 'What part of that went well?'  
'No one got shot.'  
'Ever the optimist Sir, day's not over yet.'  
'Ianto.'  
'Captain.'  
Jack grinned. 'Tosh thinks her rift predictor programme has given us a rift related anomaly, I'll be heading out with Gwen and Owen. We're expecting a plane.'  
'Congratulations Sir.'  
'Ianto.' Jack warned.

'The SUV has a full tank, do you know where the plane is from?'  
'Tosh has a theory it's one of the lost planes of aviation history.'  
'Amelia Earhart Sir?'  
Jack shook his head. 'No, it's something else, there was a plane that went missing before Christmas about fifty years ago.'  
'They're going to be a bit late.'  
'We wont know anything more until they land.'  
Ianto nodded. 'Oh, I need to go to the dry cleaner, do you have anything that needs to go?'  
'Probably, if you want to look in the bunker.' Jack checked his watch. 'I think it's going to be a long day Ianto.'  
'Aren't they all Sir.'  
'Some are longer than others.'  
'Well if I do shoot Owen, just remember who wouldn't let me take the day off, Sir.' Ianto gave Jack his Mona Lisa smile before he remembered his emails. 'Oh, I don't suppose there is any chance of being ordered to work over Christmas this year?'

'You want to work over Christmas.'  
'I'm, yes.'  
'Hm, we can talk about that later, I can hear Owen and Gwen.'  
Ianto watched Jack patting himself around the hips.  
'Jack?'  
'Just making sure I've still got my gun, he is our medic you know.'  
Ianto rolled his eyes as the door behind him opened, Owen's voice drifting out ahead of him.  
'All right then you two, said your goodbyes then have ya.'  
Ianto gave Owen the ghost of a polite smile, he knew he could always start giving Owen decaf, then he wouldn't have to shoot the annoying little man.

Gwen pushed past Owen. 'And why can't I drive?'  
Owen sighed. 'You don't know where we're going.'  
'We have sat nav Owen.'  
'I'm driving.' Jack cut into what was a familiar argument. 'I always drive.'  
'Well,' Gwen piped up. 'You let Ianto drive the SUV.'  
'Ianto's obviously very good with Jack's gear stick Gwen.'   
'Thank you Owen, but I'm sure I could be too, if I got the chance.'  
'I don't think so.'  
'But I never get the chance.'  
'This isn't going to change today either Gwen. Owen? Are you two ready, we have a plane to catch.'  
Ianto heard Owen's reply and plotted a life of decaf.  
'Some how Gwen, I don't think Jack is going to be drawing us up a roster any time soon.'  
'Why not Owen?' Her voice fading as they walked away.  
Jack watched Ianto a moment and flashed him a quick smile before he too walked away.

'A bloody roster...' Ianto muttered darkly. 'What next.' He turned back to his email. Rhi wanted to know if he was having anyone else to Christmas dinner. He wasn't sure how to broach the subject with Jack on that front. The man confused him. It was that simple, he didn't know where he stood with him. And that extended to the question of what he was supposed to do about Owen. He knew he couldn't really shoot him. And being annoyed about the snide comments wasn't really grounds for death or decaf. If he knew where he stood with Jack, he could deal with Owen. As it was he didn't really know what he was defending. So no, he probably wasn't inviting Jack to dinner Christmas day. Or should he. Ianto wanted to bang his head on the desk. This was doing his head in, but he didn't want to say anything if this was just sex for Jack because he didn't want to stop. 

Which left him exactly nowhere in terms of knowing what was happening. And although Owen and Tosh knew there was, something happening, he didn't want to talk to either of them about it. He wondered why he was so reluctant, the thought that crossed his mind he immediately wanted to ignore. Along with the unease that whatever their relationship was, it wouldn't survive closer examination. And that would break his heart. So no, it wasn't a very comfortable thought. He didn't remember it being like this when he'd fallen in love with Lisa. It would have been easier if he hadn't admitted that to himself he reasoned. But at least he didn't feel guilty when he thought about Lisa now. Part of him was always going to hold the memory of her in his heart. Realizing there was room for both her and Jack freed him up to find room for Jack in his soul. Which brought him crashing back to not knowing what Jack's feelings were. And that thought oscillated with his utter mortification that Tosh and Owen were drawing their own conclusions over his relationship. And that he didn't really know what that relationship even was. And he wasn't sure which was worse. 

As for Owen's comments, he knew it was uncharitable of him to hope the plane might land on him. But it didn't stop him hoping, even just a little. He really couldn't see why Tosh was so bent out of shape over the ratty looking guy. He wasn't exactly nice to be around most of the time, and he was hardly classically handsome. Not like Jack. Ianto sighed. It always came back to Jack. He wondered how they were getting on out at the airfield. He decided to see if Tosh had an update yet. Sitting behind his desk was just giving him time to think, time he didn't want or need.

\----------------------

Ianto handed Tosh a fresh coffee.   
She pointed at the computer monitors. 'Diane Holmes is the pilot, John Ellis and Emma Cowell are her passengers, they were on their way to Dublin.'  
'Are you finding much?'  
She sighed. 'Some but it's a bit sketchy, there are a few newspaper articles from December 1953, but it wasn't exactly the height of the internet age. I'm hoping we'll know more when they get back.'   
'Right then.'  
Tosh hesitated. 'Ianto?'  
He took a breath and shook his head. 'I'd rather not talk about it, if your going to ask me about Jack.'  
'You seem happier though.'  
'Doesn't mean I know what's happening.'  
Tosh nodded. 'I know it was a bit new for me, Mary. Well, you know all about that.' She tried to find the words. 'If he makes you happy, then is that enough?'

Ianto closed his eyes as he composed himself, he'd wanted someone to talk to about how he was feeling. Given his other options, Tosh might at least have some indication of what it's like to be with someone you never expected to be with. To fall in love with. 'I'm not really sure,' he sighed. 'I think it was easier when I was just in the background. It's like, there's no light, until he walks into the room. I don't exist until he looks at me and I can't breathe.' He straightened a tie that wasn't crooked just so he would have something to do with his hands.   
Tosh just smiled as she nodded. 'I kind of know a little of what that's like. At least you don't have to watch him with everyone but you. He knows when you've walked into the room, he sees you. I'm, it's like I'm not even there.'  
Ianto reached out to Tosh, his hand resting lightly on her arm a moment. 'I think we are all at the mercy of others Tosh. And perhaps he does see you, but maybe he just doesn't deserve you yet.' He turned to walk away.  
'Ianto.' Tosh called after him. 'I don't know if I can believe that.'  
He shrugged. 'What would I know, I'm just a tea boy who happens to be shagging the boss.'  
Tosh shook her head. 'I think your more than that Ianto Jones.'  
'Well.' Ianto walked deeper into the Hub.

\----------------------

Jack tried to focus on the lights of the Hub above them, it was late. Their waifs were tucked up in strange beds, struggling to make sense of a world gone mad. Torn from lives they knew and a world they had called home. Tossed by a spacial anomaly, a door in time, into a different world and they were barely starting to scratch the surface. He saw the reflection of his own fears in their eyes, fears he had spent lifetimes ignoring. Hiding behind a smile he no longer felt. His only warmth the sweet, gentle, innocent man sleeping next to him. And he hated knowing that he poisoned every life he touched. Outliving ever lover he'd ever had or would have. He asked himself the very unflattering question, how many had he actually loved and how many were simply convenient. He suspected the latter list was the longer of the two. Which, along with the paradox of his not ageing at any normal rate had driven the occasional lover mad. Not staying dead had also wrecked more than just his life. And now it was going to wreck Ianto's life too. 

How could it not when the young Welshman with his beautiful vowels gave so freely of himself. If he gave Jack everything he would have nothing left. He wasn't sure he was worthy of Ianto. He also knew that while he would give Ianto anything he asked of him, he couldn't give him his heart or his freedom. Jack wanted to scream to the heavens at the contradiction he had painted himself into. He was no longer capable of love and he was never giving Ianto up. It ate away at him, what if he was stopping Ianto from living a life filled with love, a family and beautiful blue eyed children. Was he some sort of parasite? Absorbing the purity and innocence of the man, until youth spent Ianto would be left a shell. All the promise inherent in the life he could have lived consumed by the lusts of an immortal con man who had lost his soul a long time ago. Was there no one who could grant him absolution in the darkness.

He felt Ianto stir against him in his sleep, soft breaths as his chest rose and fell. What dreams he dreamt, Jack wondered, what lives did he live in the freedom of sleep. Did Ianto explore worlds in his dreams, did he dream in colour? Or like Jack, was he afraid to dream, afraid that in dreams the ghosts of his past could haunt him once more. Haunted by the faces of those whose deaths he had ordered, lives he had taken because someone had to. 

Someone always had to make those decisions and it had been his job for too long. He no longer wanted to hold it all together but there was no one else he could give it to. He was tired and he wanted the oblivion that came from the sleep of the innocent. Something he hadn't had in a very long time. Thoughts of innocence brought him back to Ianto. How long before the younger man gave himself so completely that Ianto Jones no longer existed. How long before Ianto fell in love. Jack gently brushed Ianto's hair back before lightly kissing him. His voice a whisper in the darkness. 'Don't fall in love with me.' He felt Ianto stir next to him and held him close as sleep crept over him, until he joined Ianto in dreams.

Jack woke with a start, his dream still too real as he reached for Ianto, to make sure he was still there sharing his bed. His heart racing, adrenalin flooding his body as Ianto opened a sleepy eye.  
'What is it?'  
'It was just a dream.' Jack felt relief flood him and warmth returned to his body as he felt Ianto lying next to him in the darkness.  
'What sort of dream Jack?' Ianto mumbled, his words edged with sleep.  
'One where the world ended Ianto.'  
'The world's always ending Jack.'

'I know.' Jack touched Ianto, the dream was too real, a dream where Ianto was dead. He needed to connect with Ianto to banish the gut wrenching feeling of being alone again. Holding Ianto he kissed his eyelids and held him close.  
'Jack.' Ianto muttered. 'It's ridiculous o'clock in the morning.'  
'I know, I just need to know your still here.'  
He looked at the alarm. 'It's three am Jack, where else would I be?' Ianto curled up and yawned. 'Go back to sleep.'

Jack stifled a yawn of his own and wrapped Ianto in his arms as he tried to find sleep that was free of dreams. He usually dreamed of his past, this time he didn't want to imagine a future the beautiful Welshman next to him. He also didn't want to examine that too closely either as he drifted into sleep. The unwanted thought and all it hinted at drifting further away until it too was forgotten.

\----------------------

Jack watched Ianto, when he stayed with him in the Hub their morning routine was the same. After they finally got out of bed they would shower, dress and Ianto made the bed. Usually while Jack watched, he frowned, something was different. 'Ianto, what's that?'  
Ianto straightened up. 'This Jack?' Indicating the object of Jack's apparent scrutiny that he was holding.  
'Yes, what is it?'  
'I believe it's called, a pillow, Sir.'  
'I see.' Jack was tempted to roll his eyes but he decided to play along, recognizing Ianto's tone. 'It isn't my pillow.'  
'No Sir, it's mine.'  
'Well I figured that.'  
'If you already knew, why did you ask?'  
Jack had to concede, Ianto had a point. 'When did you sneak it in here?'  
'I didn't sneak anything in. Sir.'

Jack recognised the icy tone that replaced the playful one as he shook his head. 'No, you probably didn't.'  
'Jack.' Ianto tossed his pillow onto the bed next to Jack's. 'You didn't sleep well last night did you. I remember being woken at some point.'  
Jack ran a hand though his hair. 'Oh, I didn't imagine that then, I wasn't sure.'   
He stepped closer to him. 'Do you remember what you were dreaming about?'  
Jack shook his head, he was surrounded by a feeling of unease with no memory of why. He pulled Ianto into his arms. 'I don't usually remember my dreams Ianto. I've got ghosts following me as it is without seeing them in my dreams too.' He sighed softly. 'Come on, I'll buy you breakfast before the others get here. And you can tell me why you want to work on Christmas day.'  
'Ah.'

\----------------------

They sat in their usual café, breakfast dishes pushed towards the centre of the table between them as Jack drank his coffee and Ianto sipped his tea.  
'So you have to cook dinner and that's why you want me to fabricate an emergency?'  
'Not an emergency, exactly.'  
Jack finished his coffee, it wasn't as good as Ianto's of course. 'When did you last see your family?'   
Ianto frowned. 'My mother's birthday I think, June.'  
'Where do they live, outer Mongolia?'  
'Cardiff.'  
'You Welsh.'  
'And what's that supposed to mean Sir.' Ianto smiled, he had gotten used to Jack's 'Welsh' comments.   
Jack grinned. 'I don't really celebrate Christmas myself, it usually just slips past unremarked.'  
'You don't want an invite to dinner then Sir.'  
Smiling he shook his head. 'No Ianto, thank you but no. And if you have finished, we have three lost souls to look after.'

Ianto nodded, he wasn't sure if he was relieved Jack hadn't wanted to join him for Christmas dinner, or if he was disappointed. Had Jack said that because he didn't want to meet his family. Or because he just didn't celebrate Christmas. Ianto walked beside Jack and tried to focus on their latest problem instead of thinking himself in circles. They had to introduce three people from the nineteen fifties to modern day Cardiff. Not one of their easier assignments. Second guessing Jack would have to wait. Although it did raise another question and he wasn't able to stop himself asking. 'Does that mean you don't want a Christmas present?'

Jack stopped walking and looked at Ianto. 'I hadn't really thought about that, if I'm honest I wasn't even aware it was this close to Christmas until you mentioned it. Do you want a Christmas present?'  
Ianto considered that. 'I don't know.' He wanted to say yes, he did want a gift, if Jack wanted to get him one. Not because he should, because he could. Ianto just wasn't sure he wanted to have that conversation with Jack, even if he had started it. 

Jack looked at Ianto, he was standing there, hands in his pockets while he tried to look nonchalant. Jack sighed softly, he knew what that meant. He flashed Ianto a grin and started walking again. 'How about we finish this conversation after we get though the day without you killing Owen.'  
'I never said I wanted to kill him Jack, just shoot him.'  
They were standing at the door to the tourist office. 'Come on, lets see if the waifs are here yet.'

\----------------------

Jack thought about all the times he had died, alone and afraid. Knowing that after the darkness came nothing. Until the pain, with the fear still there along with the loneliness. He wondered if he would have made the same choice John Ellis had made, if there had been a way he could have stayed dead. He also wasn't quite sure what he was going to tell Ianto as he sat in his Audi next to a dead man. He was tired, tired of being out of his own time, tired of watching the people around him die. He had seen John faced with the spectre of his own mortality in the form of his son, old and addled, the son he had known stolen by time. His only connection to his past a handful of photos, a life already lived and a single suitcase.  
How many times, Jack wondered, had he himself picked his life up and started again, and how many more lives lay ahead of him. Burying lovers and friends along the way. Memories in a tin tucked into a draw of people he had watched age and die while he did not. And now there was Ianto. He didn't want to think of Ianto joining the collection of photos, becoming the half forgotten face of another lover when he lived on. He heard Ianto's voice in his ear, over his comms line.  
'Jack?'  
He exhaled slowly before he responded. 'I found your car, and John. I need you to come here, but,' He sighed. 'I need you Ianto.'  
'I'll get a cab Sir.'

\----------------------

Ianto paid the driver and moved towards Jack, waiting for him outside the garage door. 'John?'  
With a barely restrained sob he shook his head. 'I couldn't stop him, well, I could have stopped him but he would have tried again.' He felt the tears in his eyes and just breathed Ianto in when the younger man wrapped his arms around him. 'I couldn't let him die alone Ianto.'  
Ianto could smell exhaust fumes mixed in with Jack's natural pheromones, he didn't understand what Jack was saying, but he gathered John was dead. In his car. He sighed, he couldn't drive his car now someone had killed himself in it. And he wasn't sure if he was supposed to advise any prospective buyers of the fact. But even more important was Jack needed him. He sighed softly, he was still second guessing everything Jack said and did. He'd get his car towed back to the Hub and sort it out from there. 

He just wasn't sure what they were gong to do with John's body. But that was usually Tosh's department, he just made sure the SUV had a full tank of gas and they all got their paperwork done on time and had coffee to drink. If this was going to be added to his job description he was going to need a pay rise. He'd only just finished paying the car off and he'd loved that car. He sighed softly, it was just a car. John was a person. Hopes and fears and unrealized dreams gone, torn from him just as he had been torn from his own place in the world, from his own time. Already mourned, there was no one left to stand at his grave and curse the god that had taken him from the world. So Ianto let go of the idea that John had killed himself in his car, and held on to the man in his arms instead. It was going to be another long day. They seemed to be having a lot of them lately.

\----------------------

Jack sat at his desk in the Hub and accepted the whiskey Ianto handed him. 'He was a man outside of his own time and it destroyed him Ianto. Even Diane's gone, trying to get back to her time, so god knows where she will end up.'  
'And Emma has moved to London Sir.'

They were alone in the Hub, Ianto had tried to talk Jack into going back to his flat with him, but Jack had insisted on staying at the Hub. Since he no longer had a car Ianto decided it was just easier to stay with Jack, not wanting to leave him alone. Owen had been thankfully silent on the matter. He was looking at Jack from his seat on the couch, whiskey of his own in hand. Jack spun his chair around and moved to sit next to Ianto.   
'I don't think I'll ever get used to this part of the job.'

Jack shook his head. 'You don't. I've lost count of how many people I've put into the morgue. I wasn't joking when Suzie died, we are going to run out of room down there.'  
'And what about here Jack.' Ianto laid a hand above Jack's heart. 'Will you run out of room here?'  
Jack nodded. 'Eventually.' He reached out to Ianto and pulled him closer. 'Right now I want to get lost in you.' He kissed Ianto and tried to let it all fade away. 'It's been a while since we tried the furniture in my office.'  
'I'm still getting over the last time.' Ianto muttered darkly as he kissed Jack back.


End file.
